Cerro Grande Fire

National Park Service Fire Management

The Organic Act of 1916 founded the National Park Service with the mission to perpetuate natural conditions and processes, preserve cultural resources, and provide for public enjoyment, as specified by the enabling legislation and other legal mandates. The agency has an overriding conservation mission rather than multiple use.

From 1916 to 1968, national policy was strictly to suppress all fires. Officially all fires, whatever their size or origin, were considered wildfires and suppressed as quickly as possible. The fact that the presence of fire and other natural disturbances was essential and normal for plant and animal communities was recognized. Further evidence showed that lack of fire was a major contributor to increasing fuel accumulations, especially in forest communities. Everglades National Park began researching controlled burns in the 1950s. The Leopold Report (Leopold et al. 1963) underscored the importance of restoring ecological processes. In response to that report, NPS fire management policy changed dramatically in 1968. Naturally ignited fires were recognized as "natural phenomena" and use of prescribed fire was accepted as a means of achieving resources and fuel reduction objectives. During the past 30 years the national program has developed in recognition of the complexity of fires on the landscape and the professional skills needed for fire management.

Wildland fire management activities are essential to protect human life, personal property, and irreplaceable natural and cultural resources, and to accomplish the NPS mission. Interagency recognition of risks and expenses associated with wildland fire management culminated in the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review (USDA Forest Service and DOI 1995). The Secretary of the Interior has accepted and endorsed the principles, policies, and recommendations in the report, and has directed the NPS to implement them.

There is a hierarchy of authorities and plans associated with wildland fire. The NPS Organic Act of 1916 mandates conservation of resources processes. NPS Management Policies, Director's Orders-18, and Reference Manual-18 are national level direction. Parks prepare individual fire management plans with environmental compliance, and the prescribed fire plan is a subordinate document.

NPS Management Policies (USDI National Park Service 2000a) for wildland fire management were revised in 1998 to meet the intent of the new Director's Orders and the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review. Policies stated that park fire management programs will be designed to meet specific resources management objectives and to ensure that firefighter and public safety are not compromised. A fire management plan with a comprehensive environmental assessment will be developed.

The policies continued that all fires burning in natural or landscaped vegetation will be classified as either wildland fires or prescribed fires. Wildland fires will be effectively managed, considering resource values to be protected and firefighter and public safety, using a full range of strategic and tactical operations. Prescribed fires, which are ignited by park managers to achieve resource objectives, will have monitoring of fire behavior, smoke behavior, fire decisions, and fire effects in order to determine whether specific objectives were met.

All parks will use a systematic decision making process to determine the most appropriate management strategies for all unplanned ignitions and for prescribed fires that are no longer meeting resource objectives. Superintendents will consider the full range of suppression strategies. Suppression methods for wildland fires should minimize impacts of the suppression action and the fire, commensurate with effective control and resource values to be protected.

Director's Order-18. In November 1998, the Director of the National Park Service approved the new Director's Orders-18 Wildland Fire Management (DO-18) (USDI National Park Service 1998b). Director's Order-18 incorporated the 1995 policy and program review by 1) institutionalizing within NPS the new policies, organizational and operational relationships, and changes in law and reporting requirements reflected in the report, and 2) establishing a framework by which the NPS will implement the report's principles, policies, and recommendations.

Reference Manual-18. Reference Manual-18 Wildland Fire Management (RM-18) is a technical discussion of wildland fire management requirements and procedures that provides detailed definitions and expanded guidance of all information presented in DO-18 (USDI National Park Service 1998a). Among other subjects, contents of RM-18 include guidance for safety, planning, qualifications, wildland fire and prescribed fire management, monitoring, and incident evaluation and review.

Site Description. Bandelier National Monument is located in the southern portion of the Pajarito Plateau in the Jemez Mountains at the southern edge of the Rocky Mountains in north central New Mexico (USDI National Park Service 1997). The monument comprises 32,727 acres of area composed of volcanic ash deposits and lava flows that have been eroded into deep canyons. Elevations range from 5,300 feet to 10,199 feet. Prime archeological resources, which are noted in the enabling legislation, are remnants of the Puebloan People between 1100 and 1600 A.D.

The monument is bordered to the south, west, and northeast by the Santa Fe National Forest, to the north by the private lands of the Baca Ranch, and to the east by the Department of Energy Los Alamos National Laboratory (Figure 1). The communities of Los Alamos and White Rock are within five air miles to the east and southeast, respectively. Bandelier is a member of the Joint Powers Operating Plan, Santa Fe Zone, which provides for mutual aid initial attack of wildfires using the concept of closest available resources.

Fire Management Program. Forest communities cover most of the monument with high elevation grasslands occurring as breaks in the forest. Major communities are juniper grasslands, pinon-juniper, ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, and spruce-fir. Fire history studies showed frequent historic fires dating back four centuries throughout what is now monument land (USDI National Park Service 1997). The average fire frequency for all studies in the ponderosa pine-mixed conifer communities was one fire in 10 years during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Lightning fires began in the early spring and peaked in late June to early July then decreased significantly as the summer rainy season progressed. Fire occurrence was drastically reduced starting in the late 1800s due to steadily increasing human settlement and land uses. Suppression and land uses led to an increase in forest fuel accumulations, even-aged forest composition, loss of open forest structure, and decline of fire-dependent species. Fire behavior changed from predominantly lower to moderate intensity ground and surface fires with some crowning to great potential and occurrence of high severity crown fires.

The current Bandelier National Monument Wildland Fire Management Plan was approved in January 1997, and it was a revision of the first fire plan that was approved in 1986. The 1997 plan incorporated the principles, policies, and recommendations from the 1995 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review. An addendum to the fire plan in June 1997 described an agreement between NPS and US Fish and Wildlife Service about endangered species. Another addendum was done in June 1998 that changed the terminology in the fire management plan to the current usage in the 1995 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. The plan described operational details for conducting a comprehensive program of wildland and prescribed fire, safety, monitoring, research, education, and air quality.

The wildland fire plan prescribed actions to implement the Servicewide fire management policies and to achieve park resources management objectives. The four objectives stated in the plan are:

• Allow prescribed natural fires to function in fire-dependent ecosystem,
• Use prescribed fire to meet management objectives,
• Protect life, property, and park resources from the effects of unwanted fire, and
• Prevent adverse impacts from fire suppression.

Prescribed fire plans are subordinate to the fire management plan. They are prepared for each burn and have required elements as directed by RM-18. At a minimum, those elements include description of the area, goals and objectives, range of acceptable results expected, project assessment, implementation actions, cooperation, contingency plan, funding, smoke management, monitoring, and post-burn activities. The superintendent must approve plans before they are implemented.

National Park Service Cerro Grande Fire Website